As it turns out, someone was listening (see the above whine), but it was while I was creating posts with the comments turned off (again, see the above whine, re: machinery this time).

It was Luis, from Colorado Luis:

Serious question: Isn't the personal loan a big campaign finance loophole? In this case, later his wife can use her money to pay off the loan?

You know all about the letter vs. spirit of the law thing.

Also, didn't Schwarzenegger loan his campaign a bunch of his own money so that his big donors that would turn people off could wait until after the election to contribute?

I don't know his motivation, but it sounds right and fits the actual events as they developed.

Kerry Lends Campaign $6.4 Million
House Mortgaged As Funds Dwindle

By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 24, 2003; Page A06

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) announced yesterday that he borrowed $6.4 million to lend to his financially strapped presidential campaign with less than a month to go to the crucial Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses.

"Senator Kerry's personal commitment to the race is unquestioned," Mary Beth Cahill, his campaign manager, said in a prepared statement. "John Kerry will win the nomination and then beat George Bush in November."

Kerry is trying to finish no lower than second in both Iowa, where he is running third in most polls, and in New Hampshire, where he is in second place according to many surveys. Kerry aides did not rule out additional borrowing, depending on campaign needs.

Kerry rejected public financing of his presidential primary campaign, which would have provided him at least $4.5 million that he now forgoes. By rejecting the subsidies, Kerry does not have to abide by state spending limits in New Hampshire and Iowa, or by an overall primary spending limit of about $46 million.

President Bush and former Vermont governor Howard Dean also rejected public financing, but, unlike Kerry, they are raising additional money from private contributors, not their own resources.

Kerry borrowed the $6.4 million from the Mellon Trust of New England, which granted a mortgage on his half of the home that Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, own on Beacon Hill's Louisburg Square.

The mortgage features an adjustable rate starting at 3.125 percent, and the payments will be interest-only for the first 10 years of the 30-year loan. According to calculations by the Mortgage Bankers Association, Kerry's monthly payments during the first year will be $16,667, or $200,000 a year.

Kerry, whose 2002 income was $144,091, according to tax returns, must pay off the mortgage himself and cannot use his wife's fortune, estimated at $500 million. The $6.4 million is a loan to the campaign. Kerry can be repaid in full with contributions from individual donors until the primary season ends at the Democratic convention in July. After that, the campaign would be allowed to repay him a maximum of $250,000, according to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.

Asked how Kerry will meet the monthly payments, an aide said that "he is a man of substantial means."